The Fair Deal

The Fair Deal was the name given to President Harry
Truman's domestic program. Building on Roosevelt's New
Deal, Truman believed that the federal government should
guarantee economic opportunity and social stability. He
struggled to achieve those ends in the face of fierce
political opposition from legislators determined to reduce
the role of government.

Truman's first priority in the immediate postwar period was
to make the transition to a peacetime economy. Servicemen
wanted to come home quickly, but once they arrived they
faced competition for housing and employment. The G.I.
Bill, passed before the end of the war, helped ease
servicemen back into civilian life by providing benefits
such as guaranteed loans for home-buying and financial aid
for industrial training and university education.

More troubling was labor unrest. As war production ceased,
many workers found themselves without jobs. Others wanted
pay increases they felt were long overdue. In 1946, 4.6
million workers went on strike, more than ever before in
American history. They challenged the automobile, steel,
and electrical industries. When they took on the railroads
and soft-coal mines, Truman intervened to stop union
excesses, but in so doing he alienated many workers.

While dealing with immediately pressing issues, Truman also
provided a broader agenda for action. Less than a week
after the war ended, he presented Congress with a 21-point
program, which provided for protection against unfair
employment practices, a higher minimum wage, greater
unemployment compensation, and housing assistance. In the
next several months, he added proposals for health
insurance and atomic energy legislation. But this
scattershot approach often left Truman's priorities
unclear.

Republicans were quick to attack. In the 1946 congressional
elections they asked, "Had enough?" and voters responded
that they had. Republicans, with majorities in both houses
of Congress for the first time since 1928, were determined
to reverse the liberal direction of the Roosevelt years.

Truman fought with the Congress as it cut spending and
reduced taxes. In 1948 he sought reelection, despite polls
indicating that he had little chance. After a vigorous
campaign, Truman scored one of the great upsets in American
politics, defeating the Republican nominee, Thomas Dewey,
governor of New York. Reviving the old New Deal coalition,
Truman held on to labor, farmers, and African-American
voters.

When Truman finally left office in 1953, his Fair Deal was
but a mixed success. In July 1948 he banned racial
discrimination in federal government hiring practices and
ordered an end to segregation in the military. The minimum
wage had risen, and social security programs had expanded.
A housing program brought some gains but left many needs
unmet. National health insurance, aid-to-education
measures, reformed agricultural subsidies, and his
legislative civil rights agenda never made it through
Congress. The president's pursuit of the Cold War,
ultimately his most important objective, made it especially
difficult to develop support for social reform in the face
of intense opposition.